Awesome / Halo 5: Guardians

Fireteam Osiris make their entrance.

Locke: Blue Team! Stand down!
Chief: (starts walking away) I have a job to do.
Locke: Cortana is our concern now, sir.
(Chief stops cold)
Chief: Like hell she is.

—Mission 5: Unconfirmed

SPOILERS OFF ON MOMENTS PAGES! ALL SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED!

• The opening cutscene shows the havoc four trained SPARTANs can do on a battlefield, highlighted by Vale casually taking on two energy sword-wielding Elites and eliminating them effortlessly. Bad. Ass.
  • To wit, Vale not only boards the Phantom, near effortlessly kills the crew - she hijacks the damn thing, ramming it into a Forerunner fighter, jumps off the crashing phantom and mows down the Forerunner soldier. All of this, and she isn't even out of breath! There's also Buck and Tanaka's frequent use of well-placed ground-pounds and Locke jumping over a Ghost, literally ripping the pilot out and letting the thing crash into the snow. All while in a full sprint, and towards the end, continuing combat while they were outrunning a crashing cruiser. Not bad for the 'new model' is it, Halsey?
  • Hell, the entire damn scene in general encapsulates everything the Spartans are. Powerful, fast, efficient, and nigh unstoppable Juggernauts. From drop to engagement, the above happens in under two minutes. And doubles as pretty much Halo's direct answer to the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
• Meanwhile, Blue Team's cinematic shows off Master Chief's Guile Hero tendencies by shooting through a Human spaceship's window, and allowing the Explosive Decompression to take care of the several energy sword-wielding Elites without lifting a finger (Blue Team using mag boots and thruster packs to prevent themselves from being spaced).
  • The entire rest of the mission counts as well, with Blue Team never once freaking out or raising their tone beyond professionalism except when concerned about the Chief falling down a hole and having a brief episode from Cortana's visions. Not even when staring down Hunters. Which is topped off by wiping out a Covenant fleet via causing the ship they're on to have a meltdown when there's no way to recover the ship due to enemy numbers. And escaping just like the Chief escaped the Pillar of Autumn so long ago.
• In mission 3's opening, Halsey begins flipping out when she realized Cortana was somehow still alive after Halo 4, and even more so when she finds out John knows about it somehow. Roland, the AI of the UNSC Infinity, keeps trying to get a word in and keeps getting cut off, until he finally shouts out and then verbally backhands Halsey over her sudden accusations that Cortana should be kept away from the Chief and trying to throw her own creation under the bus.
  Roland: Why is Cortana the problem? Because she didn't die when she was supposed to?!
• After the massive buildup in the marketing of the confrontation between Chief and Locke, we finally get to see a short but sweet brawl between the two. Chief wins, but not without Locke cracking his visor and leaving a scar that sticks around. Once his visor is cracked, Chief pauses and in that moment you can feel him stop taking it easy on Locke and switch into ass-kicking mode. The moment he does suddenly Locke can't even land a hit anymore.
  • Before that, the Chief had simply considered Fireteam Osiris a distraction not worth fighting. The reason the fight happened? Locke inadvertently pressed the Chief's one Berserk Button: He threatened Cortana. Cue Locke suddenly being designated a threat. Locke should honestly consider himself lucky that the Chief wasn't trying to kill him.
• Thel 'Vadam, aka the Arbiter, is back. And he's still kicking as much ass as when we controlled him:
  • During the mission "Swords of Sanghelios", Fireteam Osiris is on a mad dash to extract Arbiter Thel 'Vadam from a losing battle with the Covenant remnant. By the time you reach the Arbiter, it turns out his own guards are simply standing down, as he wasn't in any danger. He had been dealing with the Covenant himself.
    Arbiter: For Sanghelios! *Stabs Covenant Elite*
  • Which he one-ups during the Battle of Sunaion, by taking on a Promethean Knight solo, tackling it and jamming the Prophet's Bane into its head. Then standing up and greeting Osiris with a casual how-do-you-do "Spartans".
  • And then he helps you plow through dozens of Prometheans troops, capped off with a battle against the Warden, ending the level. After Osiris leaves on the Guardian, you see him kill an Elite, and then he turns to his gathered troops and delivers a line, signifying that, yes, the Covenant is done.
    Arbiter: Hunt them to the last! Today, we extinguish the Covenant's light forever!
  • It's actually possible with the right AI for Arbiter to go mano-a-mano with the Warden and win.
• In Halo 4, 343 allowed players to finally pilot the Pelican in combat during the campaign. How do they intend to top this in Halo 5? Simple:
  Locke: We are airborne in Forerunner Phaetons.
• In previous Halo works, Monitors were either an annoyance who only provided the barest of help, or an active threat. But Halo 5 introduces Exuberant Witness, the first female-personality Monitor. Not only is she noticeably saner than Guilty Spark, not only does she immediately make it abundantly clear she intends to side with the humans against Cortana's plans to subjugate organic life, but she makes her first impression even better by warping in a Scorpion tank for you to use against the plentiful enemies of her introductory level.
• The finale, where the only thing standing between Cortana getting away with a Cryptum that has Blue Team trapped inside and Spartan Jameson Locke is a measly relay node, smaller than the gravitational cores that Fireteam Osiris has been destroying for the past half an hour. According to 031 Exuberant Witness, all Osiris has to do is disrupt the energy field. Easy, right? Not when Cortana's Getaway Guardian is priming its Slipspace jump sequence, which involves a crescendo of shockwaves that have been known to destroy ENTIRE CITIES, and even bring a SPACE ELEVATOR to the point of critical damage. And Osiris braves the walk with each blast, their armor straining from the repeated blows, as Locke's armor readouts fizzle and almost seem to go NEGATIVE, until he finally manages to PUNCH the relay in the nick of time, giving Exuberant control back of the Genesis installation and letting her steal back the Cryptum from Cortana. BAD. ASS.
  • Exuberant doesn't simply steal back the Cryptum, she summons millions of Constructors from within Genesis itself to remove it - watching the ground beneath Cortana's Guardian collapse as these machines swarm towards it is awesome in itself.
    031 Exuberant Witness: I have control again!
    Cortana: What?! What are you doing? What happened?
    031 Exuberant Witness: Do you hear me?! I! HAVE! CONTROL AGAIN!
    Vale: Locke! You alive?!
    Locke: Did we save them?
    Cortana: It is too late, the slipspace drives are activated. You can't—
    Vale: (as hordes of Constructors swarm towards Cortana's Guardian) Exuberant? What...
    031 Exuberant Witness: Constructors! This is a Builder facility after all. And I was installed by the Builders. I serve the Builders!
    Cortana: No. Stop it!
    031 Exuberant Witness: You took my installation! I will take something of yours! (the Cryptum detaches from the Guardian and begins to descend)
    Cortana: (as her Guardian disappears into slipspace) JOHN!
• Halo 5 brought the Weapon Launching technique back from Halo: Combat Evolved. Basically, you throw a grenade in a manner that the explosion launches a weapon (like power weapons or an energy sword) straight across the map towards you. You are awarded a medal if you manage to pull it off.
  • Some players, especially Halo CE veterans, have practiced to the point that they can do this consistently.